This content explains the Catholic Church's teaching on who can receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders, emphasizing that it is exclusively reserved for baptized men, a practice rooted in Jesus' choice of male apostles.
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hi my name is father Mike Schmitz and
you're listening to the catechism in a
year podcast where we encounter God's
plan of sheer goodness for us revealed
in scripture and passed down to the
tradition of the Catholic faith the
catechism in the year is brought to you
by Ascension in 365 days we'll read
through the catechism of the Catholic
Church discovering our identity in God's
family as we journey together toward our
Heavenly home this is day 216. we're
reading paragraphs
1577-1580 as always I'm using the
Ascension edition of the catechism which
includes the foundations of Faith
approach but you can follow along with
any recent version of the catechism of
the Catholic church you can also
download your own catechism and year
reading plan by visiting
ascensionpress.com Ciy that is what I'm
following in case you're wondering you
can also click follow or subscribe in
your podcast app for daily updates and
daily notifications today is day 216
paragraphs 1577 1580 yesterday we talked
about the celebration of this Sacrament
we talked with deacons also who could
confer the sacrament of holy orders and
today just very briefly I think it's
essentially four paragraphs we're asking
answering asking and answering the
question who can receive this Sacrament
and so one of the things we're going to
hear is that very right away in
paragraph 1577 says only a baptized man
Veer meaning uh Veer is the Latin term
for male man uh like not just human
beings like you know homo but Veer being
a male human being only a baptized man
Veer validly receives sacred ordination
and we're gonna talk about that a little
bit because in our world that could be
kind of a challenge for a lot of people
and so we're going to dive into that as
best that I can and we're gonna hear
what the catechism has to say on that
front so as we enter into this topic
today let's take a moment and before we
dive into these four paragraphs let us
dive into the Father's Heart and ask for
Father's wisdom to ask for the wisdom of
Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit
Father in heaven we ask you to please in
the name of your son Jesus Christ send
us your Holy Spirit a spirit of wisdom a
spirit of of knowledge a spirit of
understanding give us a spirit of of
docility a spirit of being able to be
taught give us a teachability lord God that
that
that guides us when we don't understand
that guides us when we have questions
that guides us when we struggle we ask
you Lord God to give us Minds that are
quick Minds that are
sharp we ask you to give us Minds that are
are
willing to be led but also willing to
ask questions Lord God give us Minds
that are willing to seek the truth and
to hold on to the truth when we find it
wherever we find it
you are the source of all truth you're
the source of all goodness you're the
source of all Grace we ask you to give
us your Grace lead us to your truth help
us to live goodness in Jesus name we
pray in the name of the father and of
the son and of the holy spirit amen it
is day 216 we are reading paragraphs
1577 to 1580.
who can receive this sacrament
only a baptized man Veer validly
receives sacred ordination
the Lord chose men Veri to form the
College of The Twelve Apostles and the
apostles did the same when they chose
collaborators to succeed them in their
Ministry the College of Bishops with
whom the priests are united in the
priesthood makes the College of the
twelve and ever-present and ever active
reality until Christ's return
the church recognizes herself to be
bound by this Choice made by the Lord
himself for this reason the ordination
of women is not possible
no one has a right to receive the
sacrament of holy orders indeed no one
claims this office for himself he is
called to it by God
anyone who thinks he recognizes the
signs of God's call to the ordained
Ministry must humbly submit his desire
to the authority of the church who has
the responsibility and right to call
someone to receive orders
like every Grace this Sacrament can be
received only as an unmerited gift
all the ordained ministers of the Latin
church with the exception of permanent
deacons are normally chosen from among
men of Faith who live a celibate life
and who intend it to remain celibate for
the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven
called to consecrate themselves with
undivided heart to the Lord and to the
Affairs of the Lord they give themselves
entirely to God and to men
celibacy is a sign of this new life to
the service of which the church's
minister is consecrated accepted with a
joyous heart celibacy radiantly
proclaims the reign of God
in the Eastern churches a different
discipline has been enforced for many
centuries while Bishops are chosen
solely from among celibates married men
can be ordained as deacons and Priests
this practice has long been considered
legitimate these priests exercise a
fruitful Ministry within their
communities moreover Priestly celibacy
is held in great honor in the Eastern
churches and many priests have freely
chosen it for the sake of the kingdom of God
God
in the east as in the west a man who has
already received the sacrament of holy
orders can no longer marry
right as I said four paragraphs paragraphs
paragraphs
1577-1580 and it brings up as you know
the opening prayer was very conscious of
the fact that this is this topic of who
can receive sacrament of holy orders it
can be a challenge to a lot of people
and and and some people even find would
maybe possibly claim that the sacrament
of holy orders being restricted
exclusively to men is unjust and we're
going to look at that or do our my best
to try to address that claim so let's do
our best I know in fact I have to say on
for my part
you know even talking about the
sacrament of holy orders as we have been
for the last number of days one of the
things that I I've been hesitant to to
say his has been
I kind of grew up with in it not because
of my family not because of any one
person but because I grew up in this
culture here in the United States of
America in the late 20th century that
that
that was kind of embarrassed about this
idea like the even the idea that I could
be called that could be personally
called to be a priest was one of those
things that was like yeah I don't kind
of have to apologize for that like even
when we we've been reading the last
couple days here about here's the
Dignity of the priesthood here's you
know the power that God bestows on the
priests and I just kind of it makes I'm
a little sheepish actually that I don't
know if you caught that at all maybe it
didn't give that impression I really
tried to I guess not hide it but kind of
hide it in some ways because again my
background it comes from this place of
kind of being somewhat apologetic about
the fact that I know that not everyone
receives the sacrament of holy orders in
fact there's in in some ways only a few
people who are in in light of the large
group of Christians who actually
received the Sacramento foliators and
only men can receive or are able to
receive the sacrament of holy orders and
so you know you talk about this oh this
is a great thing this is an incredible
thing what a gift God has given to other
Church which is true 100 true
but I'm always keeping in mind the fact
that you know there could be one of my
sisters in Christ listening to this and
saying yeah but that not for me that
that guy could never do that and and
feeling badly about that I get that like
I got a hundred percent
um understand that and so I again I
I grew up I remember when I was I went
to first when I went to Seminary and
there were some young women on the
campus that I went to Seminary at and it
was the first time I I did a retreat
with a bunch of college students and
and
some of these college students were
helping with this retreat they were just
yeah they loved the Lord they loved the
church I remember asking them like okay
I'm in the Seminary you know do you ever
have is is that never an issue for you
that here as a woman who loves Jesus and
wants to serve his church uh that you
can't be ordained to the priesthood you
know and it was the first time that I I
met people women who loved the Lord and
wanted to serve the church their whole
lives and had no desire and had no I
mean they're like yeah it would be great
to be incredible but weren't mad about
it right weren't upset about weren't sad
about the fact that no that's just how
Jesus set it up you know I I guess this
is the briefest of reasons like the
question is well the statement is only a
baptized man validly receives
segregation the question is why how come
and at the very last sentence in
paragraph 1577
for this reason the ordination of women
is not possible and the question is well
why is that you know in fact there are
sometimes you have stories sometimes you
even have some Bishops who say well
maybe maybe women's ordination is
possible and yet the firm teaching of
the church is that the ordination of
women is not possible not that not that
the church won't do it but it's not
possible the question again is why why
is ordination
reserved exclusively for men
the answer and the only theological
answer is because that's how Jesus
established this I mean that's I mean
again that's you could be mad about that
and we can all be mad about that if you
if you are but that that's the answer
there's a lot of their other theological
reasons there's other uh things I want
to kind of dive into a little bit here
but the first thing we have to say is
yeah we didn't choose this this was
given to us in a similar way that we
didn't choose we're gonna have bread and
wine that becomes Christ's body and
blood like that was given to us that
that when you pour water or immerse
someone in water and baptize them in the
name of the fathers and holy spirit that
that's what brings a person into the
kingdom like we didn't choose that that
was given to us I think keep this in
mind that all of the sacraments have
been given to us we've received them
and when Jesus gave us the sacrament of
holy orders when he gave us this New
Covenant priesthood
he exclusively chose men now some people
will say well Jesus was a part product
of his culture and and so of course he
didn't choose women because it's because
he's part of the Jewish people and
Jewish Judaism didn't have female
priests and so he never would even think
of this now a couple things keep in mind
yes Jesus is situated in time and he is
yes he's fully Jewish yet there are many
times when Jesus didn't mind you know
flipping over the tables in more ways
than one literally and figuratively
there are many times when Jesus raised
up the Dignity of women and that's
probably what I should where I should
have started in this place of just
saying when the church says only a
baptized man can receive validly receive ordination
ordination
it is not saying that women men are
better than women or women are worse
than men that's not saying that at all
saying men and women are equal in
dignity equal heirs to Grace we've
talked about this so many times
um that you you know this that the
scriptures establishes very very clearly
from Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis
chapter 2 where here is the man and the
woman and they are equal equal in the
eyes of God they're both made in God's
image and likeness
but equality isn't the same thing as
sameness right equality isn't sameness
the men and men and women are equal in
dignity and different and this is the
distinction that has been lost in our
culture in so many ways right at the
same time we're saying ah is this this
is fascinating we live in this this day
and age that wants to in some ways
eradicate the differences between men
and women
and at the same time
hmm we don't know how to do that because
you can't
so Jesus
treated women
with absolute respect and dignity
and that that men and women are joint
heirs to the life of Grace this is in
the church's prayer that man and woman
male and female husband and wife are
joint heirs to the life of Grace
and that that God calls everyone to the
heights of holiness
and and yes there there have been people
in the past you know Aristotle or even
someone like Thomas Aquinas who might be
operating out of a a different kind of
world view that's not always consistent
with the Bible which would say something
along the lines of
um that Aristotle would say that you
know women are not fully formed men that
kind of idea or that at least that idea
behind this whole thing and Christians
don't adopt that we do not adopt that
Catholics do not adopt that men and
women are equal in dignity joint heirs
to the Life of Christ in fact there's
only been one perfect human person right
Jesus is a Divine person he's
perfectionist and his Humanity but the
only perfect human person is a woman
is Our Lady Mary
just to establish this is so important
that male and female in the Catholic worldview
worldview
are equal in dignity in joint heirs to
the life of Grace
the holiest person who ever lived
whoever lived is a woman
and the church readily acknowledges that
accepts that Embraces that proclaims
that even in spite of the fact that many
non-Christian non-catholic Christians
would would be critical of our claim for
this we will not back down just like
it's flat out right there
but Jesus for this role of priests only
chose men is that because he is
culturally conditioned again we said
this before she says literally and
figuratively upturned tables Jesus
treated women very very clearly as
equals people say yeah but he was still
culturally conditioned um the idea of of
women priests just was beyond the pale
well no we know that in the the Greeks
and the Romans and the the pagans
essentially the The non-jews Who
surrounded Israel who surrounded the
Jewish people who surrounded Jesus
they have abundance of priestesses they
had an abundance of female priests it
wasn't as if the concept was foreign to
Jesus enhanced him in his humanity and
if this is something that he wanted he
could have chosen this I mean again he
elevated women in such an incredible way
he brought them it as disciples and that
he was he was the rabbi this is a
remarkable thing you know it's even
Jesus was so non-culturally bound that
an even bigger flipping of a table is
the fact that he elevated the status of children
children
I mean the children had zero status in
the ancient world just keep keep this in
mind um men and women they had status
the children had zero status
and Jesus is saying let the little ones
come to me
and and not only that but if you give
one of these little ones a drink of
water you're giving it to me he
identifies himself with the lowest by in
doing that he lifts them up elated so
Jesus wasn't so culturally bound that he
he couldn't possibly have imagined
female priests and that's why he chose
him but he did choose only men to
receive the sacrament of holy orders to
be this New Covenant priesthood now
why I don't know
why did you why does Jesus choose Bread
and Wine to become his body and blood I
don't know why did Jesus choose water
it's either the sign of baptism or the
matter in baptism I I don't I don't know
there is there's ideas and part of the
idea is we've said this many many times
that priesthood is particularly
connected to fatherhood all the way back
in the old Covenant you have the role of
the father and mother in the family
but originally in the Jewish world view
in the Jewish way of living is the
father is the priest of the family and
of course that gets lost with the issue
of the golden calf and and it becomes no
the priesthood is restricted to the
tribe of Levi but originally priesthood
and fatherhood are are linked and so
Jesus here in the Fulfillment of
priesthood the Fulfillment of the Kingdom
Kingdom
they are also linked and we recognize
this that only men can be dads and only
women can be moms
and let's look at this for a second
because we asked the question if things
were were balanced if things were just
you'd ask in any given family
who has more power
who's more important mom or dad
and you say well well they both have the
roles exactly and this is what would if
we're the family of God if the church is
the family of God say well who has more
power the fathers are the mothers well
is that a question you ask about your family
family
you say mom and dad are both important
mom and dad are both essential like we
actually we can't be a family without
mom and dad and son in some ways right
and I would say this I would say that I
I would love to see more parishes I
think I think this question Rises not
only when we try to eliminate
differences between male and female but
I think this question Rises when we
don't have our religious sisters as
present as they used to be
in our parishes and think about this if
you had a parish and you have the priest
or have a couple different priests in
your Parish but you also have religious
sisters you have the sisters you have
the Mother Superior or whoever you have
you realize oh wow yeah so we have a mom
here we have a dad here we do have
spiritual fathers and spiritual mothers
all around us and when you see that you
realize oh yeah that's what that's what
the men who are called to this role do
and this is the women who are called
that other role that's how they live and
we would recognize you know there's
actually even parishes in my diocese
where we have a religious community of
religious sisters that are kind of more
oriented towards diocesean work in the
sense that they work in a parish they
serve in a parish and they live in that
Parish just like the priests would live
if they lived in community would live in
this parish and so in those parishes
it's amazing because you have the pastor
right you have the priest who is the
father of the parish but you also have
these religious sisters who are in some
ways he's spiritually speaking the
mothers of the parish as well and it's
just it's so incredible now you might
say what's a matter of power it's all
the power still resides with the you
know the buck stops in in um with the
priest who makes the decisions like the
pastor or something like this and I
would say well
maybe maybe that's how things are set up
in your Parish or in many many parishes
but I look at the history of even the
town I live in right now
and I think okay what are the two
industries in the town I live in well
there's there's shipping and like mining
kind of a situation that's that built
the town and that's one but the other
two industries are education and medicine
medicine
and I think okay this those of those
three areas of Industry okay Mining and
shipping that whole whole thing that's
fine that's that's kind of secular but
the medical industry and the education
industry were established in this city
the city I live in they were established
by religious sisters
the yeah mining iron ore that kind of in
some ways brought money to this area
but it was the religious sisters who
brought Jesus to this area he was a
religious sisters who brought a
civilization to this area it was the
religious sisters who brought education
and they brought medicine to this area
they're the ones who started the first
clinics and hospitals that the ones who
started the first schools in this area
you recognized like who's more
influential then was it the iron ore and
the the men who went into the mines and
did all the shipping yep that was very
very important because because they they
brought people here
but who made those people into a
community who helped those people become
formed shaped educated and healed
it was religious sisters that seems like
a lot of power to me and it seems like a
really good way we're not power right
service remember sacrament of holy
orders is always meant to be oriented
towards the service it's not about power
it's all about service and every one of
us can exercise
whatever power God has given to us at
the service of others
at every moment
the last thing is this you might say
okay but it's unjust and I'm sorry about
the going on and on about this I'd say
it's unjust
it's it's a sign of Injustice that that
women can't be ordained
okay let's go back to the beginning
why does the church say that only men
baptized men can be ordained
because Jesus established it that way
now if it's unjust that means it's a sin
it is unjust that means it's a sin and
if it's Jesus who established this you
know God he's God he he knows he knew
that what he established would be
carried out for the rest of history on
this planet
and if you established this thing that was
was
unjust that means that Jesus sinned
he sinned in establishing
in all male priesthood
he sinned in excluding women from being
able to be priests
which would mean that Jesus isn't
actually God
see this is it in some ways we recognize
that we've only received this we didn't
invent it it was given to us
and there's something about this that
just again we just pray for the spirit
of docilities we pray for the spirit of
teachability because as as I said
earlier this is one of those teachings
that I'm like I'm so embarrassed about
in some ways until I realized that no
actually it makes sense Jesus Christ
gave us the priesthood as an image of
the fatherhood of God
Jesus Christ Christ gave us the
priesthood as an image of his
self-offering and his self-gift that
doesn't mean that that women can't image
Jesus in the world of course as as men
and women as male and female We Are All
Made In God's image and likeness
but there's this way in which
God did not want to leave us without fathers
fathers
it just stuff something to think about
to ask am I teachable here God can you
teach me
you know in paragraph 1578 says no one
has a right to receive the sacrament of
holy orders neither male nor female
nobody no individual has a right to
receive the sacrament of holy orders
like every Grace the sacrament can only
be received as an unmerited gift
and those people who are called in the West
West
called the holy orders they're called
the be celibate
and and that's not always the case there
are some men in in the East there's some
men in other churches who are ordained
and then when they became Catholic maybe
they're already married they were
already married they became Catholic
maybe they were ordained Catholic
priests then that has happened
what's interesting I think is that that
last line that in the East and the West
a man who has already received the
sacrament of holy orders can no longer
marry so so while there are uh married
men and single men who can be ordained
to the diaconate or to the priesthood
once a person is ordained they cannot be
married so even a deacon say he is
married and he gets ordained a deacon
and say he becomes a widower
he cannot remarry kind of a fascinating
little piece of information I don't know
if today was a a challenge for you if
today was a bunch of words and garble
mess I don't know if today was like oh
yeah that makes sense
or or what it was but I do know that you
know we're going to be launching we're
going to continue with this and we're
gonna we're going to continue to trust
in Jesus they remember this that Jesus
established his church he continues to
guide his church by the power of the
Holy Spirit he can see he promised to
lead her into all truth and so sometimes
we see things in the news that say like
oh there's going to be women priests or
they're going to have married priests or
something like this and well the first
thing is impossible
only men can be priests and the second
thing is is possible but probably not
very wise to get rid of Priestly
celibacy it's not going to be wise I
didn't talk about that today at all but
just recognize that it's it's not it's
not an actual answer it would be a
Band-Aid that we actually wouldn't even
cover up the wound I think in so many
ways more on that maybe some other day
but the really the invitation for all of
us and for me included I mentioned again
it can be a challenge it was challenged
me back in the day and now I I receive
it with joy the challenge though for so
many of us is
does the Lord get to teach me does the
church get to teach me you know we're
coming to an end of this section and the
catechism on pillar two and we're
launching into pillar 3 the morality how
do we live as Christians as Catholics
and uh I have to say uh they're gonna be
a lot of challenges you know it's one
thing here's what we believe okay makes
sense explain that and then we get to
pillar three like here here's how we
live now like okay even more because I
now have to say here's what the rubber
hits the road do I really want to follow
the lord Jesus not just in my mind with
what I believe but also in my actions
and how I live and so that's coming up
but tomorrow we're going to continue
talking about what are the what are the
effects of the sacrament of holy orders
what's the indelible character the grace
of the Holy Spirit and we're gonna keep
on trucking along knowing that truly
truly God has given us the sacrament of
holy orders as a gift and he's called
certain people to not just receive that
gift but to exercise that gift to help
you and me become Holier
I'm praying for you please pray for me
my name is father Mike cannot wait to
see you tomorrow God bless [Music]
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